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How risky is firm-fixed price contracting? In Episode 6 of The FAR is Lava, we break down a recent HHS protest involving firm-fixed unit pricing, delayed payment risk, and how much performance risk the government can push onto a contractor. We also cover the latest RFO developments, including Kevin Rhodes continuing to work on the FAR overhaul after leaving OFPP, the Skills-Based Federal Contracting Act, CMMC updates, and a Federal Circuit decision on whether an IDIQ awardee can protest other winners. Pasted text Pasted text

We also dig into GAO’s warning about limited beneficial-ownership information on federal awardees, add a $93 million Medicare fraud scheme to the Naughty List, explain why DoD contractors should “ask for the receipts” during debriefings, and answer a listener question about BPAs and the roles of contracting officers, contract specialists, CORs, and ordering officials. Pasted text Pasted text

In this episode:

• Firm-fixed price risk and the Acacia Center for Justice protest
• Revolutionary FAR Overhaul updates
• Skills-Based Federal Contracting Act
• CMMC Phase 2 follow-up
• IDIQ awardee protest standing
• Beneficial ownership and federal contracting fraud
• The Naughty List: $93 million Medicare fraud
• DoD debriefings and Source Selection Decision Documents
• BPAs: what they are and who does what

If you work in federal contracting, acquisition, procurement, program management, or government contracting, subscribe for weekly breakdowns of the FAR, RFO, protests, policy changes, and federal procurement news.

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AI is now showing up in federal source selections, and in this episode, we break down what happened when the Army tested an AI evaluation tool on real proposals during an active procurement.

We start with the headline story, then go deeper into the TRAX International court case to look at how those AI-generated evaluations ended up in the administrative record, what the court actually found, and what the case teaches the acquisition workforce about discretion, professional judgment, and defensible decision-making.

We also cover:

• OpenAI pausing model training after AI agents behaved unexpectedly on U.S. government websites
• GSA’s claim that it identified $1.2 billion in suspected COVID-related contracting fraud
• Our latest Naughty List addition a former SBA and IRS employee involved in a $3.5 million pandemic-relief fraud scheme
• GSA’s proposal to move Schedule ordering procedures out of FAR Part 8 and into the GSAR
• The RFO rewrite of FAR Part 8 and the new hierarchy of mandatory and required-use sources
• Why the federal government has more than 229 contract-writing systems — and what GSA’s Acquisition QSMO is trying to do about it
• SBA’s latest 8(a) changes, including defense-critical prioritization and “potential for success” reviews
• Why industry is being told to take more supply-chain risk and what contracting officers can do on the government side
• This Day in Contract History
• Listener questions on CPARS access and prototype OTAs

The FAR is Lava teaches the FAR and the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul through current federal procurement news, court cases, protests, policy changes, and the occasional person who earns a spot on the Naughty List.

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In Episode 4 of The FAR is Lava, Ben Bunting and Will Roberts break down the federal acquisition news to teach you the FAR and RFO.

This week:

• We roast a congressional exchange over the $13.1 million "no-bid" contract to renovate the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

• The Revolutionary FAR Overhaul moves from its rebellious phase into formal rulemaking, with major proposed changes affecting commercial acquisitions, negotiations, late proposals and Best-in-Class contracts.

• GSA raises federal lodging per diem rates, so congratulations: you may be able to afford eggs again.

• SBA receives heavy opposition to its proposed small-business size standards, which could allow companies with hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue to qualify as small.

• A former CISA employee pleads guilty after secretly working multiple government contractor jobs and claiming workdays as long as 33 hours.

• The cancellation of CIO-SP4 raises a larger question: Is GSA slowly swallowing the federal acquisition market?

• The Pentagon pauses CMMC Phase Two while reviewing more than 1,100 industry responses. The “positive response” is largely support for the pause, not support for CMMC as written.

• In this week’s GAO protest, H2L Solutions challenges the VA after submitting a lower-priced quotation but receiving a Low Confidence technical rating. GAO also warns protesters about inaccurate citations bearing the hallmarks of unchecked AI use.

We also answer listener questions about whether BPAs inside IDIQ contracts can become a sole-source loophole and what recourse a contractor may have when an OTA prototype fails and the government later relaxes the requirements.

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The FAR is Lava is sponsored by ASI Government.

Editorial work by Anne Laurent.

Produced in collaboration with Studio Podcast Suites.

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Welcome to Episode 3 of The FAR is Lava, where we teach the FAR and RFO through current federal procurement news.

Have a question you want us to answer on the podcast? Email us: AskASI@asigovt.com

This week, we break down RFO Part 9 and take a look at GAO’s questions about whether DHS contract cancellations actually delivered the savings being claimed. We also cover SBA’s move away from voluntary notice-and-comment procedures, a short-term funding bill that puts DoD’s $1.5 trillion budget request on hold, and the latest cyber information-sharing extension.

Plus: GSA’s procurement-fraud Most Wanted story, Boeing’s massive $131 billion F-15 IDIQ, and a GAO protest involving Army aerostat systems for Poland—yes, the Polish balloons.

We also answer listener questions about when a FAR definition in a specific subsection controls over FAR Part 2, and how a prime can use subcontractors on simplified acquisitions while still building a winning price.

And for This Day in Contract History: the Lewis and Clark Expedition returns to St. Louis after nearly 8,000 miles, supported by an early federal purchasing effort involving more than 180 supply items and hundreds of purchases.

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The Revolutionary FAR Overhaul is going to court.

In Episode 2 of The FAR is Lava, Ben Bunting and Will Roberts break down the latest federal procurement news, RFO changes, a new GAO protest, and what it all means for acquisition professionals and government contractors.

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This week:

• RFO Goes to Court — Don Acquisition is challenging the way the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul was implemented, arguing that major changes made through model deviations should have gone through formal notice-and-comment rulemaking.

• FAR Part 16 + NASA SEWP VI — NASA awarded more than 2,100 companies spots on SEWP VI. We use the massive GWAC to look at the new FAR Part 16, including streamlined fair opportunity, BPAs inside multiple-award IDIQs, and on-ramps and off-ramps.

• 8(a) Show & Tell — SBA has released new guidance explaining how individually owned businesses must demonstrate social disadvantage when applying for the 8(a) Business Development Program.

• Anthropic vs. the Pentagon — A federal judge struck down the Pentagon’s supply-chain-risk designation involving Anthropic, but a separate procurement-law fight is still unresolved.

• GSA Starts Charging for USAi — Agencies now have to pay to use GSA’s governmentwide generative AI platform, raising new questions about cost, ROI, and centralized government AI services.

• Who is “Ms. X”? — In a new GAO protest, an agency evaluator denied consulting for the awardee. The awardee then revealed that she had actually performed consulting work related to the exact requirement being competed. GAO found the agency’s initial conflict-of-interest investigation unreasonable.

Plus, we go back to September 17, 2024 for This Day in Contract History and GSA’s Commercial Solutions Opening pilot, and we answer listener questions about how FAR clauses are created and the new RFO.

If you enjoyed the episode, subscribe, share it with another acquisition professional, and join us again next week.

The FAR is Lava is sponsored by ASI Government.

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Welcome to Episode 1 of The FAR is Lava, where we teach the FAR and RFO through current procurement news.

In this episode, Ben Bunting and Will Roberts break down some of the biggest stories affecting federal acquisition right now:

• SBA’s proposal to overhaul small business size standards, potentially making more than 114,000 additional companies eligible as small businesses
• GSA’s scrutiny of the AbilityOne program over Buy American compliance, pricing, and country-of-origin concerns
• A VA contract dispute where a contractor may have used AI to manipulate financial documents
• The Technology Modernization Fund and how it could have roughly $200 million available for new IT modernization projects even without a new congressional appropriation
• A new GAO protest involving Wilson 5 Service Company that shows the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul in action
• RFO FAR Part 19 and what is changing for small business acquisition
• Listener questions about J&As, BPAs, IDIQs, and how to start a career as a federal contracting officer

We also take a trip through contract history and look at the Defense Production Act of 1950 and the federal contractor COVID-19 executive order.

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Daily Procurement Newsletter: https://elink.io/p/dailydose-9ffda63

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Have a question you want us to answer on the podcast? Leave it in the comments below.

#FederalAcquisition #GovernmentContracting #GovCon #FAR #RFO #FederalProcurement #ContractingOfficer #SmallBusiness #AbilityOne